Lawrence L. Thornton

Jan. 6, 1930 to Feb. 11, 2007

Lawrence Thornton was born on Jan. 6, 1930, in Billings, the sixth son and eighth child of Royal Jay and Mildred (White) Thornton. He grew up on the family's dry land ranch - part of which lies on the Crow Indian Reservation - and graduated from Billings Senior High School in 1947.
He initially attended Westmar College in Le Mars, Iowa, then transferred to the Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., earning a bachelor of music degree in 1953. During those years, he recollected that not only did Albert Einstein walk by his house en route to Princeton University, but he frequently played his violin with the Westminster College orchestra, in which Lawrence played the cello.
While attending Westminster College, he met and married fellow student Rita Kaufman of Lakewood, Fla., by whom he had a son and two daughters, the younger having preceded him in death.
In 1966, Lawrence married Marian Blansett, daughter of longtime Sultan residents, Norris and Ena (Rasmussen) Blansett, thereby enlarging his family to five stepchildren and daughter born to the couple in 1976.
During his lifetime, Lawrence directed choirs and taught music in California, Washington and Oregon, notably at Portland's North Minster Presbyterian Church and Cascade College, as well as the Oswego, Ore., school district. A man of many talents, he later turned his hand to the professional repair of wind instruments, to remodeling old houses and to farming in the Columbia Basin.
Following his move to western Washington, Lawrence taught music in the Sultan, Startup and Skykomish school districts from 1968 to 1974. But his early love of agriculture prompted him to retire from teaching in order to run the Sultan River Greenhouses with his wife, Marian, at the same time raising timber on land adjacent to the Sultan Basin Road. He continued to play the cello and, in recent years, began to compose chamber music for string quartets.
On Feb. 11, 2007, after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease, Lawrence Thornton passed peacefully away at his Sultan home, surrounded by many members of his large and loving family.
He is survived by his wife, Marian (Blansett) Thornton; children Russell Thornton, Stacia Thornton, Jennifer (Thornton) Halverson, Mark Thornton, Julie (Dunlap) Wallace, Susi (Dunlap) Pettell, Laurie (Dunlap) Eller and Bradley J. Dunlap; sisters Esther Thornton and Marjorie (Thornton) Houser; brothers Everett, Max and Melvin Thornton; sister-in-law Phyllis (Blansett) Sims; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Plans are pending for a private memorial service and interment.